In a typical merchant transaction at a restaurant, a consumer receives a bill at the end of the dining experience and submits a form of payment. The form of payment may be cash, check, debit card, charge card or credit card. If a debit card or credit card is provided by the consumer, an employee takes the card to a point-of-sale terminal and processes the card to obtain authorization for receiving payment for the bill. The point-of-sale terminal is generally out of sight from the consumer and it takes a period of time for the employee to process the card. The consumer may be concerned that the employee is retaining credit card information while out of sight.
Furthermore, it is very common for a group of consumers to decide to pay for only a portion of the total bill. The restaurant employee may divide the total bill into multiple bills for people to pay, though this takes additional time for the employee and increases the chance of making a mistake on the bill. Alternatively, the restaurant employee may only provide a total bill, and then process various amounts on multiple cards in order to satisfy payment. Again, dividing payment of a total bill amongst multiple cards increases the risk of a mistake.
In light of the foregoing, there exists a need for a system, method and/or computer program product that provides a consumer the security of maintaining physical possession of a credit card, increases efficiency of a restaurant by lowering bill payment wait times, and decreases the chances of a billing mistake when multiple funding sources are used to satisfy payment.